The Isle of Misfit Toys is where it’s at! Thx for voting and listening!

Starting a white board in the programming office! Send your ideas my way - jmcgnn@xpn.org - we prob ran thru 20ish concepts this spring/summer before locking in on Covers after seeing reaction to covers on a #TbT

Long as you need!

We went back and forth and decided it felt like a cover, a cultural event, and many voted for it. We tried to keep songs that got a large number of votes in, not out. Another that stayed was Gloria by Patti, but we cut Because the Night. All 3 could be argued either way. Hope u enjoyed 885!

That is a good point. We overruled our own rules on that one :)

We discussed about 40 songs that were voted into Top 885, about 25 got cut. We kept a few that were def debatable (Run-DMC, maybe 2-3 others), but I don’t think any of songs above were close enough to get into 885. Other songs had MORE versions (Hallelujah 26! Creep 30!) and some made 885.

The Zutons!

Thank you!!

One of my jobs the past week was trying to “land the plane” and time out the #XPNCountdown to end around 6p-ish today - this is my worksheet as I was scheduling (and rescheduling) each day, adding hours as needed, artist interviews, and trying to have it all time out. Who needs a computer?

SO true!! (Says the guy who voted for John Cale’s Hallelujah!)

Check this out friends of @wxpnfm.bsky.social

That’s a really good question! Besides the obvious 2023 Greatest by Women year, if I had to guess I think this might be most, though last year’s 21st Century might be comparable. Generally, the more “classic rock,” the more male leaning. I can research this later and find out. Thx for asking!!

Home - WXPN | Vinyl At Heart WXPN is a nationally recognized leader in Triple A programming and the premier guide for discovering new and significant artists in rock, blues, roots, and folk.

You know what’s wild that I can share now with y’all? 16 different covers of Love Will Tear Us Apart got votes, none made #xpncountdown - same with 15 versions of I’m on Fire, 14 God Only Knows, 12 Wicked Games, 11 Purple Rains, 10 Enter Sandmans… lot of great songs, no definitive cover!

xpn.org

You can always see the ones we play on the playlist page :)

The Phish and Dead were dominant in mid-countdown, which threw the average song length up by :11 seconds over 2024. But the last day (with a few exceptions) actually had shorter song lengths!

Ding ding ding - keep listening!

#xpncountdown Spoiler alert (maybe): Wicked Game was one of a handful on songs that had at least 10 versions that got at least one vote, yet NO version made the 885!

Home - WXPN | Vinyl At Heart WXPN is a nationally recognized leader in Triple A programming and the premier guide for discovering new and significant artists in rock, blues, roots, and folk.

As we hurtle towards the Top 100 on this last day of the #XPNCountdown, I can verify that Mike V is going to talk to 2 artists who have songs in the Top 100 and Dan Reed will hear from an artist in the Top 10. But who? And when? And about what songs? Keep listening!

xpn.org

One of the greatest interpreters of alltime! Always picking choice tunes, recorded with a crack band, and her voice is so perfect!

There’s always the archived audio…

You can use a slider to FF / RW if listening on a browser. On my phone I figured out that by closing the phone then opening, a player comes up that also allows sliding timing. I made a vid of browser version -

Yes - when we stretched to 10-7 the pieces got too long so had to chop it up differently. But the team of XPN Digital Scientists are working to fix it - and post it!

We will post the audio on the 885 page… not as fun as hearing it live, but you CAN go back!

My correction was a mistake - I thought we played a version by Beck with Wonder. The version voted in was SRV’s. The BBA version is quite cool though. :)

I think the last time @wxpnfm.bsky.social played @metallica.com twice in an hour was when @somevelvetblog.bsky.social took us Metal on April Fools Day 2023. @kristenkurtis.bsky.social is ROCKING this #XPNCountdown morning!

My bad. Shoulda been BBA version. That was on us.

Tim - we you are the Original Original Oracle!

The Natural History - cool NY indie rock band early ‘00s. My old band Cordalene played a show with them at The Fire in Philly around 2002, a couple years BEFORE Spoon covered them.

All the old jokes about Deadhead hippies being too stoned to vote… not true, least not for the #xpncountdown this year! Plus, The Dead and Jerry (and Phish too) have always made some pretty good choices in songs to cover, so buckle up!

"Creep" - Prince at Coachella 2008 (Uploaded via Permission from Radiohead & NPG Music Publishing) YouTube video by Miles Vincent Hartl

This is the ultimate slow build jam. I remember having my mind blow first time hearing Prince cover Radiohead. Wonder what Thom Yorke’s reaction was to hearing it? From Coachella 2008 to #838 on the 885 Greatest Covers #XPNCountdown youtu.be/NFXZNt4oLkE?...